Shopping In Oaxaca
Our websites have been compiled to enhance your visit to the State of Oaxaca; to enable you to find the perfect place to stay, learn about the food, use your time well, maximize your fun, and make your shopping expeditions more successful. You will make your own discoveries and find surprises on every block. You can buy a fine straw hat for a dollar, a leather one for twelve, or a little blue wooden dog covered with doves and flowers for ten dollars, that will make you laugh and remember your good time finding him for years.
Perhaps you will spend sixty-five dollars on the most beautiful garment yet devised (flattering to any age, shape or type of woman): the hand-woven Oaxaca huipil, a long tunic that also comes blouse length. It appears in dozens of patterns, embroideries and weaves, according to the village origin of the weaver. This native cotton fabric, like the wool of the Teotitlán rugs, laboriously spun, dyed and woven by hand, is now incorporated into designer clothes and fabrics marketed around the world.
If visiting Oaxaca for a short time and buying handicrafts, it is recommendable to see the stores first before venturing into the countryside. This will give you an excellent and immediate orientation into an exotic new world, and you will find that prices in the shops are not excessive.
The simple reason for this is that their sources are close-by, the store owners are long-time customers favored by the artisans, and overhead expenses in the City of Oaxaca are not high. Although it is an enchanting adventure to visit the markets and folk art villages, and one can make excellent purchases in handicrafts that way, the best quality in almost every catagory is more available in the good stores. Some of the shops have been in business for decades, and their owners are experts not only on Oaxacan folk art, but also handicrafts from other parts of Mexico. They know who the best artisans are, select their most important work, and are cognizant of its meaning and aesthetic value. The nature of dealing in handicrafts is such that the knowledge of these professionals, gained through hands-on experience, cannot be easily duplicated. Often the very special pieces by the greatest artisans, inevitably with limited production, can be obtained only in the City of Oaxaca. You can also place special orders with the shop owners and be certain that you will get the right merchandise in good time.
The shops have the best quality jewelry, painted wooden animals, masks and furniture, un-painted Death figures, large moving wood toys, Tavehua pottery, top-quality ceramics not only from Oaxaca but also other parts of Mexico; paintings, sculpture and prints; paper mache, Huichol Indian beaded paintings and objects, and tinware. The handicrafts which can be obtained in quality and quantity in the market places and villages of origin, are textiles, baskets, leather and fiber products, and inexpensive utilitarian pottery. The shops listed on our websites as well as the other business establishments, have all been visited and evaluated for quality of merchandise and service.
SHOPPING AND OTHER ADVENTURES
The eternal pastimes of visitors to exotic places are sightseeing, eating well, shopping, and taking it easy, four kinds of fun Oaxaca has perfected. You can climb magnificent archaeological ruins from civilizations unknown beyond these valleys, cool down in tree-filled, fountain-sprinkled parks, wander leisurely on cobblestone streets into Spanish colonial mansions with patios blooming flowers, turned into shops, hotels, restaurants, and museums.
The regional cuisine is celebrated world-wide; some of the best chefs in the U.S. can be spotted eating in the market place. A famous French cooking school brings its students here, and each year Zapotel hosts the Food of the Gods Festival in October. Beside eating at least three of the famous "moles" and sampling half a dozen native mezcals, don't miss the chocolate flavored-to-order, mixed in mills at the markets. (The same mills grind up chilis by the bushel if somebody's throwing a barbeque.) For the chocolate lovers, ecstasy overtakes reason at the smell and sight of oil from cacao beans and their rich dark sauce melding together with sugar, cinnamon and ground almonds in big tin tubs.
Hop a plane (a thirty-five minute ride) to the Pacific. Roll around in the surf or a rainbow-colored hammock and drink rum out of a coconut, under the palm trees on a pirate's coast. Hit Carnival Day in Pinotepa de Don Luis, where half the town is wearing masks, playing music or dancing, and there are only twelve other tourists in sight. Sunbathe in the nude at Puerto Angel, and walk deserted beaches all the way to Puerto Escondido. See more wild birds on the Chachagua Lagoon than you thought were still on the planet; ride the big waves at surfers' paradise, Zicatela Beach, go after the marlin and tuna with an old man of the sea.
Absorb the experiences of time (going back into), and space (floating in an exotic culture); clean your mp3 and let in the new music. Oaxaca is a safe, comfortable and inexpensive place to delve into an ancient world where the traditions, handicrafts, costumes, festivals, and market places go back thousands of years and are still throbbing with life. And what a place to shop! Forget congested malls and parking problems (although Oaxaca does have modern shopping complexes at the Plaza del Valle and in the Colonia Reforma). The center city (on UNESCO'S list of Patrimony of Humanity special cities) has small shops in restored historic buildings, and the major crafts villages are a half hour away. Taxis and restaurants abound at bargain prices (try the "comida corrida" at midday: a full meal at a remarkable price).
For thousands of years before the Spaniards came to the Central Valleys of Oaxaca the region was a highly developed center of trade and commerce. The Conqueror Hernán Cortés, seeing the rich agricultural lands and outstanding quality of products paid in tribute to the Aztecs, chose Oaxaca as the center of his empire, the Marquesado del Valle.
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Today the descendants of his subjects, the Mixe, Mixtecs and Zapotec people, are dominate in a state with 13 other native Indian groups as well. The legendary markets of Oaxaca are an adventure in real life theater that envelopes and enthralls the shyest observer. Be ready to be swept up into its heady mixture of raw commerce and human dramas. The Zapotecs who run the Central de Abastos have been traders for thousands of years; try your skills against these vendors the gods taught how to bargain! (Even the best man on Wall Street has a hard time impressing the super-wise ladies sitting on packing crates behind their bird cages, sugar cane and watermelons.)
This is the universe of the Indians whose mothers and grandmothers sold the same chiles, beans, tomatoes, mangos, avocados, spices, honey, fish, fowl, grasshoppers, chocolate, sandals, blankets, and flowers. Once inside this world, one can only give in completely to its bewildering, baroque bombardment of human intimacy, noise, hustle, confusion, odors, and visual feasts. While the market's obvious purpose may seem a purchase sealed by age-old bargaining methods, the market is far more than a place of business. The Indian markets of Mexico, of which the Abastos market of Oaxaca is a prime example, are the birthplace, dwellings and life of the people who inhabit them; and visitors are in their home, on their territory.
The sprawling open-air Central de Abastos is one of the Oaxaca's most enchanting experiences, defying mere description and challenging some of the best writers to try: D.H. Lawrence among them in his "Mornings in Mexico;" and Helen Auger in "Zapotec." The Abastos is an ordered confusion of hanging rugs and baskets, succulent, tropical fruits cut-up and heaped up, bleating goats and trussed-up, squawking turkeys, strange vegetables and age-old herbs ("epazote" for the bean pot, "yerba santa" to wrap the fish), babies who are born in the market and loll about with the nonchalance of princes, mothers who coo at them one minute and bark at camera-nervy tourists in the next.
Soon you become part of the hullabaloo, the smells of food and flowers, the calls of the vendors: "A Qué le doy, qué va a llevar?" (What shall I give you, what will you take away?); "Tlayudas," from the sellers of tray-sized tortillas, "Queso, quesillo" from the cheese merchants, "A no quiere chapulines?" from ladies with baskets of grasshoppers. The litany of these voices mixes with the fruit, flowers, handmade and manufactured goods in colors that native son Rufino Tamayo borrowed for his paintings. Even the factory-made metal tools and pails, the rainbow plastic buckets and bags look wonderful strung up under a blue and yellow awnings.
On Saturdays the Trique Indian weavers sitting on the floor working on their backstrap looms, with blouses, red, white and black huipiles hung above them, are replaced by rug merchants from Teotitlán del Valle, whose products travel the world. Elsewhere in the handicrafts section (southeast of the bread, chocolate and restaurants section) the vendors of bird cages, straw and palm harness, ropes, hammocks, bags, and baskets spread over three long aisles. The finely woven baskets come in all the old forms and are made to hold a tourists's jewelry and cosmetics or carry her swimsuit to the beach. The Oaxaca utility native bamboo called "carrizo," which grows in abundance wherever there are streams and irrigation ditches, provides stiff plaits for the big baskets which transport almost everything to the markets (and much of the folk art exported abroad). Carrizo is also used to make wonderful dish racks, toy trucks and airplanes, and bird cages in forms of little houses and churches. In a center aisle a hammock maker is at work, and on the street the growers from San Antonino sell their vegetables. Israel Rosa and his sons, handsome and grinning, make sandals called "huaraches" that fit like skin and last forever.
Long aisles are devoted to green-glazed and natural beige pottery from the village of Atzompa and the famous polished black pottery from San Bartolo Coyotepec, spun to perfection on the Zapotec wheel, an overturned clay saucer, or made by molds into little ducks, owls, rabbits, birds, and necklaces (wear two at once). In between the pottery stalls are painted wooden animals in a myriad of the acrylic colors, small leather goods (wallets, belts, wonderful bags), wooden stirrers, chocolate whisks and giant mole spoons, native blouses and huipiles. There is another locally-made pottery used in many Oaxaca homes called "criollo," which imitates ware from Central Mexico with bright splashes of blue, red and brown on a white base. Inexpensive and cheerful, it is a modern interpretation of good ceramic ware from colonial times.
If you need a pair of tennis shoes, come to the Abastos Market; or party decorations, a suitcase, a haircut, saddle for your horse, or anything else you want in life. Perhaps you'll be tempted to never leave the Abastos, spending your life there as most of the vendors do. Even sweethearts are available, at least in jest: vendors will offer pretty foreigners their son, cousin or even husband, sitting behind the eggplants with a hint of acquiescence in his grin. Humor is ever-present in the market, a light grease that smoothes the way of business, of exchange. The Zapotec women, all avid conversationalists, know how to defend their territory, and the best way to enjoy their market is to banter with them in good humor as you bargain and buy.
Oaxaca's older marketplace, two blocks southwest of the Zócalo and named "Benito Juárez," was built in 1893 of brick and iron during the regime of President Porfirio Díaz, whose first important political job was as "Jefe Político" of Tehuantepec. (The site had been Oaxaca's main market since the mid 17th century, when it was converted from the Plaza del Marqués.) On its south side is the market place church, San Juan Dios, where vendors give thanks for a successful day.
The Benito Juárez Market sells mainly fresh produce, groceries, household goods, and flowers. Here your can buy the famous Oaxaca cheeses ("queso" and "quesillo", rounded into shape by palm leaves or rolled into balls like twine). Alongside the cheeses are jars and bags of red, black and "coloradito" mole, local honey, rice and cacao beans. On the floor before the market stall there may be an ancient lady selling grasshoppers caught by her grandchildren in the fields, and given a good dose of salt and chili to preserve them.
The Las Casas and 20 de Noviembre Street sides of the market are devoted to handicrafts and things the tourists like: sandals, straw hats with bows ribbons, bags, hammocks, tinware to hang on Christmas trees, small black and green pottery jars, necklaces, and figures in the form of animals, musicians, angels, and birds. They hang in strings from the awnings, with palm and fiber baskets, hammocks and a hundred other things, swinging out in temptation.
The north side aisles are packed with small stalls selling some very choice regional textiles including traditional shawls in wool and elegant, beautiful "silk" (actually a specially treated cotton); huipiles elaborately embroidered, and bright blouses covered with flowers. Especially beautiful and easy to wear are the huipiles or tunics from San Pedro Amusgos on the Pacific coast in a variety of delicate designs and fabrics, some with geometric flowers, some with animals and scorpions. These garments take months to weave on backstrap looms; they last forever and give a woman grace and dignity.
One aisle south are the "mercerías" which sell a circus full of items from sewing supplies, wallets, plastic toys, and marbles to the famous Oaxaca cutlery, highly polished and engraved with proverbs or your name...knives, swords, sabers, cutlasses and kendos fit for a gentleman or a pirate; letter-openers for a modern businessman. Miguel Martínez and the Zavaleta Brothers, who have stands on this aisle, both sell and manufacture Oaxaca cutlery, and their workshops are open to visitors. On adjacent streets the mobile vendors "ambulantes" and shops abound, and one can easily locate a pharmacy, hardware store, stationary store, newsstand or money exchange.
Major towns all have weekly markets or "tianguis," with days staggered to enable vendors and purchasers to attend different ones. Thus Villa de Etla's market is on Wednesday, as is Zimatlán's, Zaachila's is on Thursday, Ayoquezco's on Tuesday, in Tlacolula it's Sunday, and Ocotlán it's Friday. Many visitors like the "tianguis" open-air market in Tlacolula best after those of Oaxaca. The handicrafts are abundant, there are live animals from rabbits to oxen, and the Zapotecs and Mixe of the area appear in their regional costumes with all the family, making a day of it. The market stalls line one side of the pretty little plaza with its arcades, bandstand and picnickers, and wrap around the colonial church where life-size sculptures of martyred saints line the walls. The churchyard fills up with tethered goats destined for the barbeque, village ladies swinging baskets full foodstuffs, and families assembling to go home. The food is good in restaurants across from the back wall of the chapel. About three o'clock starts the packing up of the hammocks, metates, pottery, and leather goods that await buyers somewhere else. Tlacolula and Ocotlan are towns less than a hour from the city, and the markets recommended for their colorful authenticity.
The markets, like the towns and the city, are best at festival time. For the annual celebrations of the Virgin of la Soledad in December, her images appear in all sizes in 2-D, 3-D: an image to suit everybody and everybody's price. At Christmas there are nativity figures, poinsettas and orchids, Santa Claus "piñatas," tinsel and plastic Christmas trees. On Palm Sunday worshippers and tourists alike buy crucifixes on their way into church, from vendors weaving them at the door from palm fronds and straw. When Corpus Christi Day comes, families take their little images of the baby Jesus into the market and have them elaborately dressed, all the different models to chose from displayed on the stands, the robes, the piles of little crowns and wooden thrones.
The night before the "Día de los Reyes" (Day of the Kings) on January 6th, when children are given their holiday gifts, parents crowd the markets and stores frantically buying until midnight. Why the last minute rush? Because the kids tear up the house ahead of time looking for their presents! On this holiday the "roscas" or round, twisted cakes are sold with little china dolls inside. Whoever bites down on the doll throws the next party. Big roscas have six dolls; six parties coming up for Candlemas.
One of the most colorful festivals is the Day of the Dead, All Souls' Day, at the time of Halloween. For a month ahead, production accelerates to fill the markets with candy skulls, miniature tables to mimic the grave sites with food for the souls coming back to Earth, and little skeletons playing music, popping out of coffins, getting married. The special flowers, deep yellow "cempoatzuchitl" (marigolds) and dark red "borla," (cockscomb) line the aisles of the markets and decorate the graves. Mezcal sells well because the living and the dead both get a drink (pretty chilly sitting in the cemetery all night). Children dress up as witches, ghosts and skeletons as in the U.S. The handicraft shops set up elaborate displays of dancing skeletons, fancy-dressed and riding bicycles, and otherwise cavorting as only jolly skeletons can. YALALAG, JADE, LA MANO MAGICA and CORAZON DEL PUEBLO are among the shops putting up wonderful Day of the Dead altars.
At all times of the year people in Oaxaca buy flowers, with special ones for each festival. Every market place has a section for them, and only the poorest homes go without, unless, of course, they grow their own. Deep red roses are favorites along with carnations in every color, the white lilies Diego Rivera made famous, gladiolas, white "nardos" which smell so heavenly, and their purple cousins the "agapandos," that last ten days in a vase. "Nubes," tiny flowers like froth, and "pensamientos," or pansies (the same as those embroidered on San Antonino dresses) are found in abundance. The pink and white petals from the "cacalosuchitl" tree are strung into lei-like necklaces called "rosarios," and hung on the crosses on new buildings for the Day of Santa Cruz, the 3rd of May.
Flowers are everywhere. All year long the bougainvillea riot along walls in glowing magenta, white and pink-orange. In Puerto Angel near the road up to the ANGEL DEL MAR HOTEL (with its splendid view of the bay), the whole side of a building sways with deep pink and white blossoms that have that have grown together and are born with two-color petals.
Other flowering trees announce the seasons, the spring arriving with the jacaranda and the flamboyán (royal poinciana). The "floripondio" and "huele de noche," filling the garden with perfume at night, are other exotic flowers common in Oaxaca, and the yucca tree, "hanging an arm's length of creamy bells." At Christmas time, Oaxaca's magnificent "noche buenas" (poinsettas) of a "a sure, stainless red," as D.H. Lawrence described them, are marketed all over Mexico. All year long around the Zócalo, ladies carrying baskets on their heads sell gardenias and roses in small bunches to sweeten a walk through the park or a table. Many of the cut flowers in Oaxaca are grown in mountainside villages such as Benito Juárez, north toward Guelatao, and carried down to market by the vendor on the bus, enveloped in straw mats.
The "flor inmortal" (immortal flower) is a dried straw flower in bright pink, yellows, red, and white, cultivated and made into tiny bouquets in San Antonino near Ocotlán by a handful of elderly artists. You can buy them in Oaxaca at the east entrance to Benito Juárez Market from Manuel Raymundo Cordova, or admire them in elaborate scenes on December 23rd, the Night of the Radishes, when the displays of the flor inmortal, large radish figures and corn husk figurines delight the Christmas crowds around the Zócalo.
Abandoning oneself to Oaxaca's special magic is an easy pleasure. In the summer the rains wash everything down in the afternoon and bring life to the field and food to the table. Throughout the year the cycles of fiestas and of worship structure people's activities and calm the pace of modern life.
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Breathe deeply as you look out over the great valleys once filled by lakes (the lords of the ancient Zapotecs in Teotitlán crossed the valley by canoe to festivals on Monte Albán). The centuries live on, in ritual and the lives of the Zapotec people who still speak their soft, fluid language (as well as French, English, German, and Spanish when the tourist bus hits the market in Mitla.) There is something miraculous and reassuring about the survival of this ancient, mystical race; down-to-earth, multi-layered but easily accessible, apparently as "born to shop" and sell as anyone from fast-paced cultures where Commerce is King.
In the Central Valleys, it's best to climb the pyramids early before the sun and the stones get hot. Come back to the city for a late lunch at two or three. If you don't siesta, catch the scene in the Zócalo, take a horseback ride through the foothills around San Felipe del Agua, or swim at a pool fifteen minutes away in one of the Etla villages. Wander in the shade of the city market places; sit in the cool of the Cathedral below the organ that Hernán Cortés donated four centuries ago, in gratitude to God for giving him the Valleys of Oaxaca, the best kingdom in Mexico.
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